Ubuntu: Automated virtual machine backups on Ubuntu - VirtualBox

Question:

I have several virtual machines running on Virtualbox. I want to take a backup of these virtual machines and store in source control for disaster recover. From what I understand, snapshots of these virtual machines aren't going to do the trick as far as disaster recovery is concerned.

These backups will be taken periodically, and I'm going to automate them using Jenkins automation server. I have been using an article from TechRepublic as a resource for operating VirtualBox from command line as far as exporting virtual appliances.

My thoughts on the process executed by the Jenkins job are as follows (all actions performed from command line):

Power down the particular virtual machine to be backed up (and leave virtualbox running).

Run the VirtualBox export command:

vboxmanage export UBUNTUSERVER164 -o ubuntu_server_new.ova

Run command to bring the virtual machine back up.

CD into the directory where VirtualBox virtual appliances are stored.

Copy the newly created virtual appliance (.ova format), to a local backup directory.

Compress (tar), the copied .ova file in the local backup directory.

Remove the uncompressed copy of the .ova file in the local backup directory.